Chapter 1 Part I

Anyway, upon arrival, the special exam will begin. Judging from how they confiscated our cell phones, it appears this is a troublesome exam where you'd have to either gather information yourself or utilize your personal connections. However, since the more carelessly you act, the more information is leaked, utmost discretion is demanded of us.

"I'm not cut out for this..."

My honest mutters. No matter how many special exams I've been through already, I still haven't gotten used to them one bit. Throughout my life, I've seldom ever cooperated with others.

"We will be arriving at our destination soon. Immediately afterwards, we will have you form groups indoors. And then afterwards, depending on whether or not you've finished partitioning your rooms, you'll have lunch. Throughout the afternoon you'll all be free to do whatever you want."

"That means...hooray! That means we don't have to study today right?"

Ike happily looked towards me and laughed. That's probably going to be the case. However, unlike during summer vacation, today is a non-holiday. Despite the long transit time, isn't this a kind of special treatment? It's not that different from a field trip. Upon arriving at the destination, the bus slowed down and drove towards the parking lot before stopping.

"Students will hand in their cell phones when their names are called and alight from the bus. Ayanokouji, Ike—". Chabashira performed a roll call of the boys in syllabary order while having them start alighting from the bus. I turned off my phone and placed it inside the plastic box set beside our teacher. Upon alighting, an unfamiliar teacher approached. And we were then instructed to wait a slight distant away from the bus.

"Ahh—it's cold!"

After alighting from the bus, Ike hugged himself and shouted. Perhaps it's because we're in the mountains? It's colder than it was when we had left the school. However, a spectacle unfolded before our eyes that almost made us forget the cold for a moment.

"Wow…what's this place? This isn't on the scale of a mere outdoors school..."

Before us lay a wide, open space that resembled the school grounds. And behind that were two old-fashioned school buildings. In order to accomodate all three school years, their size was also considerable. It appears we'll be spending a week here.

It was the same too during our time on the uninhabited island but I'm really not used to living amongst nature like this. Considering how this may be an exam that's related to such things, Ike, who had been a boy scout, could be useful. In addition, taking physical strength into account, Sudou's presence is also reassuring. The girls were also alighting one after another. Horikita, upon alighting, seemed like she wanted to talk to me but unfortunately, we were already lining up and as such, that proved to be impossible.

Boys and girls were then split up and we each headed over to the school building. The boys to the larger one, which is what they call the main building. Once we stepped inside the building, the somehow familiar scent of timber tickled our noses.

"It's an old-fashioned wooden building. It seems to be several years old but it looks pretty well maintained. It's really beautiful."

Hirata said so but it appears everyone else agrees with him as well. Along the way, in a room that appears to be a classroom of some sort, there was no air-conditioning installed but rather a stove had been placed at the center of it.

Probably starting from tomorrow, we'll have lessons in classrooms like that one. We then passed by what appears to be a gymnasium. The boys from Class A and Class B arrive and they looked in our direction. Afterwards, Class D entered and next up would probably be the 2nd and 3rd years. We were instructed to form a line, stand still and wait for further instructions.

Class A, and Class B too, appeared calm and did not chat amongst themselves. I should assume they've already come up with some sort of strategy on the bus.